Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater

Irving Berlin''s songs have been the soundtrack of America for a century, but his most profound contribution to the nation is to Broadway. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee''s chronicle of Berlin''s theatrical career is the first book to fully consider the songwriter''s immeasurable influence on the Great White Way. Tracing Berlin''s humble beginnings on the lower-east side to his rise to American icon, Irving Berlin''s American Musical Theatre will delight theater aficionados as well as students of music and popular culture, and anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.

From patriotic "God Bless America" to wistful "White Christmas," Irving Berlin''s songs have long accompanied Americans as they fall in love, go to war, and come home for the holidays. Irving Berlin''s American Musical Theater is the first book to fully consider this songwriter''s immeasurable influence on the American stage. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee chronicles Berlin''s legendary theatrical career, providing a rich background to some of the great composer''s most enduring songs, from "There''s No Business Like Show Business" to "Puttin'' on the Ritz." Magee shows how Berlin''s early experience singing for pennies made an impression on the young man, who kept hold of that sensibility throughout his career and transformed it into one of the defining attributes of Broadway shows. Magee also looks at darker aspects of Berlin''s life, examining the anti-Semitism that Berlin faced and his struggle with depression. Informative, provocative, and full of colorful details, this book will delight song and theater aficionados alike as well as anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.